Freedom camping trial 'working' despite excesses

The Dunedin City Council insists extra efforts to control
freedom camping on Otago Peninsula are working, despite a
complaint to police about the numbers descending on Macandrew
Bay late last week.

The complaint came after 13 vehicles took up Macandrew Bay's
five designated freedom camping parks, and other nearby
spaces, next to Ralph Ham Park on Thursday night.

Senior Constable Lox Kellas, of Portobello, confirmed the
complaint had been received on Friday morning, by which time
nine vehicles remained. The complaint was referred to the
council.

Council staff spoken to yesterday confirmed the council's
security firm, First Security, was alerted, but did not
attend immediately.

The complaint came just days after councillors voted to
continue a two-year trial of freedom camping at Macandrew
Bay, at least until June, while assessing the impact of extra
signs and security patrols.

The changes were introduced in response to community concern
at the number of freedom campers staying overnight, which
sometimes topped 20 vehicles.

Councillors at last week's planning and regulatory committee
meeting voted to continue the trial after being reassured the
recent changes were helping ease problems and no more than
five vehicles were now parking in the area.

However, council parks operations officer Richard Dahlenburg
on Friday said numbers had been ''up and down'' since the
changes were introduced.

The week before last was a good one, but there were reports
of 10 campers parked in the area early last week and 13 on
Thursday morning.

Some residents were still getting ''a bit hot under the
collar'' when extra vehicles were spotted, but the situation
was still improving, he believed.

''To the best of my knowledge it's trended down from where it
was, which was up in the 20s and even more than that at
times.

''I would suggest it's a big improvement ... a lot will
depend on the numbers of people going down the peninsula at
any one time, and what their intentions are,'' he said.

Otago Peninsula Community Board chairwoman Christine Garey
said the additional measures had been working ''very well''
to date, but ''clearly they aren't working if those are the
numbers we're getting''.

The council needed to manage the presence of freedom campers
in Macandrew Bay until the trial ended, to ease community
concerns, she said.

''That's what we're trying to ensure - that that is managed
and dealt with and people's concerns have been addressed.''

She had also noticed some freedom campers were returning to
the peninsula's quiet ''nooks and crannies'' in recent weeks,
which was something the trial aimed to put an end to.

However, while many residents remained concerned about
freedom camping and its impacts, others within the community
were ''very positive'' and welcomed them, she said.

The long-term solution remained a Department of
Conservation-style camping ground on the peninsula, which the
council planned to investigate next year, she said.

Mr Dahlenburg said security guards did not respond to the
complaint on Thursday

because they were under instruction to visit at set times.

The security checks were carried out four days a week, at 8am
and 8.30pm, to ensure freedom campers using the area were
following the rules, and to move on any who were not, he
said.

Macandrew Bay was among three areas designated for overnight
stops by freedom camping vehicles without toilets as part of
the trial, which was part of a push to ease freedom camping
rules across the city.

I'll bet London to a brick that the number of freedom campers
using the Mac Bay site will dribble down to 'manageable'
after Easter, and remain that way throughout winter months
and into spring. (With one exception: the weekend when the
Poms play the ABs at FBS. Expect to see plenty of vans (etc)
rocking up to the normal freedom camping hot-spots around
Dunedin, when the English footy team rolls into town.)

Expect numbers to increase to usual levels about six months
from now - you should start to see the numbers increase
pretty much around when daylight savings' kicks back into
life. It's been that way for about the last decade (plus).
And there's nothing in the tea-leaves that I'm seeing that
suggests 2014 is shaping up to be any different.

For the record, the numbers of campers last week (Monday to
Friday AM) were 6, 6, 8, 10, (11 if the station wagon at the
yacht club is included), and 13 on the night featured in the
paper.

Regardless of being for or against the campers, there are two
important principles here. The first is that the council
planning meeting was given inaccurate data or painted a false
impression that camper numbers are now contained to a maximum
of 5 per night. My daily observations suggest in fact that it
is more accurate to say that there are almost always more
than 5 vans. If the council is going to make important
decision that affects the public, they need to be provided
with an accurate picture. It is also important that accurate
information is published.

The second issue is that the council is not actually
enforcing the bylaw as suggested. The location of the site
actually makes it almost impossible to enforce without
constant patrols. The reason is the nature of the site where
5 parks are allocated but there are actually 21 available. It
is physically impossible to contain eager campers when they
come across the location advertised by the council.

I don't feel that most locals have an issue with 5 campers
(there were in fact always campers in the area and they never
attracted comment, and when numbers are low there are never
issues with them). If the council is, however, to continue
then they need to enforce their rules and be realistic on
whether the site is either being controlled or if it can be
controlled sustainable and without significant effort (7 days
a week, 365 days a year).